Organizations, Governments, Corporations, Or Professionals Should Behave
Essay 3: Ethics/Social Change
Adapted from J. Gross
What are Ethics?
Ethics are guidelines for how individuals, organizations, governments, corporations, or professionals should behave. They are “standards of behavior” that tell us how we should act in different circumstances and roles (as friends, family, citizens, or professionals in different fields). Ethics are:
Not feeling Not religion Not laws Not culture
Thesis Statement: Your thesis statement will assert and justify a specific argument for change.
Assignment: Write an argumentative essay on a personal or social issue you especially care about. What moral principles underlie the issue you choose? After reflecting upon the assigned readings and performing library research, write a 2-4 page. Your essay must be a MLA (連結到外部網站。)連結到外部網站。 compliant, argumentative essay on a controversial topic that includes an ethical component.
Thesis: Your thesis statement will assert clearly the ethical issue you are arguing and why you believe as you do. You must include the opponent's view using a counterargument.
Evidence: To build your argument, five sources with at least two citations from the readings as well as at least three citations from outside sources obtained through library research. Your essay must include opponent's argument (counter-argument), which you will rebut within your essay. In other words, your rebuttal will describe the opposite point of view and explain why it is flawed or wrong.
Notes: Since this is an argumentative essay, do not use "I" in this essay unless, in addition to your research, your evidence should not include any personal anecdotes. Your primary audience consists of your instructor and other ESL students.
Readings:
Ethics website and discussion https://docs(dot)google(dot)com/document/d/1X4PV7_ndoTfDA85zl8oaLmM18WorzhcG3CghlptRUF0/edit
Letter from Birmingham Jail( http://www(dot)africa(dot)upenn(dot)edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html) by Martin
Shooting an Elephant (http://www(dot)online-literature(dot)com/orwell/887/) by George Orwell
Dreams (https://docs(dot)google(dot)com/document/d/1yHa9dBRgyYcS0iY8riyOsO4PWhe7vtybJs7xqJuDT68/edit )by Langston Hughes
Still I Rise (https://drive(dot)google(dot)com/file/d/0B1K5o38Dkw_VaDhnUkJ6UWVyMWM/view )by Maya Angelou
Optional Readings:
The Ethical Mind Chapter from Five Minds for the Future
One of These Days( http://www(dot)classicshorts(dot)com/stories/ootdays.html )by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Questions to Consider:
Whose ethical standards do we follow? Who decides what is right and wrong?
What makes your topic an ethical question? What makes a question "ethical?" (Instead of political)
What is the source of the pro/con position? (In other words, are the positions people tend to take based on religious upbringing, or concepts of social good and bad behavior?)
What steps need to be taken to realize your proposed solution or ethical position?
How would the world be a better place if others adopted your point of view?
Topics:
BROAD Possible Topics for Ethics/Social Change: Note that all of these possible topics are broad and need to be narrowed to more specific topics and discussed from your unique perspective.
Economic injustice
Racial inequalities
Concepts of Race
Surrogacy
Euthanasia
Rise in drug prices
Organ donation (Who gets priority in organ transplants?)
Gun rights/violence
Death penalty
Incarceration
Environmental ethics (such as ethical water use, etc.)
Global warming vs. short term economic loss, from a third world perspective
Tourism
Privacy issues (National Security Administration spying, internet security)
Water boarding or other “enhanced interrogation techniques”
Political campaigning
Campaign financing
Refugee crises
Immigration
Lying, Cheating, Fidelity
Ethical dilemmas in journalism
Ethical dilemmas at work
Cloning
Foster Care Reform
Human Trafficking
Institution:
Date:
Immigration
Immigration has been a hotly debated topic in many countries and has become a divisive issue. Most developed countries today especially in Europe and North America have been grappling with immigration issues. Liberals want their countries to open its border to distressed immigrants who are fleeing from push factors while conservatives want the governments to impose stricter immigration policies to reduce immigration influx into their countries. However, the apparent detrimental effects of immigration are offset by the benefits and this essay seeks to showcase how immigrants despite the negativity surrounding them are, in the long-run, a great benefit to an economy or country.
Immigrants are humans who are fleeing their countries for their lives. There are push factors that have ejected them from their countries CITATION Cyn15 \l 1033 (Bansak, Simpson and Zavodny). These factors include wars, famine, natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, economic reasons such as unemployment, political instability, and cultural issues such as regressive cultures like female genital mutilation. These are all valid reasons for people to leave their homes and search for better environments where they can have a relatively better life.
We also need to welcome immigrants because their suffering is often not of their creation. Senior citizens, women, children and physically handicapped often shoulder the cost of the aforementioned push factors, and they are innocent. These issues were created by people other people especially politicians and they are forced to shoulder the weight of their costly, selfish decisions. It is only fair that they are welcomed to other countries as they are helped address the issues that drove them out of their homes. Punishing the victims by denying them asylum does not address their problems but often leads to the humanitarian crisis while the engineers of the problems are never caught.
Immigrants have a positive impact on the economy CITATION Ell13 \l 1033 (Barkan). Immigrants population is a market for goods and services, and thus they increase the productive capacity of the economy. They also diversify the labor pool and often take up jobs overlooked by the natives and in the process earn for themselves and their families. They are therefore not necessarily supported by the host country. They help build it through payment of taxes and increasing GDP. Some immigrants are highly skilled, and they have the employable skillset for bigger jobs. Other immigrants are entrepreneurs, and they create employment for themselves and the natives. People like Elon Musk is an immigrant who has revolutionized several industries including transport industry, space industry and energy industry in the host nation whilst increasing the country’s GDP, creating employment and paying taxes as an individual and through his companies.
While accepting immigrants can seem like the ethical and moral thing to do, it can also strain the resources of a country. The 2016 Migration Governance Index prepared by ...